Updated Sunday 23 August 2026 (Sunday refresh) · inner north first, then anywhere within about 40 minutes.
26 of 37 events mapped — the rest have no published address yet.
Filters▾
37things worth doing
Today & tonight — Nothing tonight stands alone -- today's picks (Preston Market Italian Day, Cut Chilli's final performance, and the last day of After Spectacle & Reassociate at Blak Dot) are folded into the weekend lane below.
This weekendFriday, Saturday and Sunday
Sunday 23 August
Coming back around — Nothing yet -- no watched event has newly confirmed a date for THIS weekend. Darebin Repair Cafe's next date (Sun 27 Sep) remains over a month out, so it stays under Further Out below. Melbourne Urban Sketchers and Jacket Bar remain awaiting announcement -- both are only checkable via a manual social sweep this run can't do.
Further outbeyond this weekend, carried forward each week
Already happenedkept for the record
OUTDOORS · EITHER
Secret Life of Birds — guided bird walk
Small-group guided walk around the Ornamental Lake spotting coots, cormorants, spinebills and swans, with a take-home bird guide. South of the river, but genuinely well-run nature programming.
WhenWed 26 Aug (weekly through to 25 Nov) · 9.45am, 1.5 hours
WhereRoyal Botanic Gardens Melbourne — meet at the Visitor Centre, Birdwood Ave, South Yarra · maps
Price$20 adult / $18 concession / $15 child
Getting thereAbout 30–40 minutes: tram 86 to the CBD, then tram 8 to the Gardens, or drive.
Group show by Banyule's community of open-studio artists in the library's own gallery, previewing who's opening their doors at October's full Open Studios weekend (10–11 Oct).
WhenOpen now, to Sun 13 Sep · Library hours
WhereLoft 275 Gallery, Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub, 275 Upper Heidelberg Rd, Ivanhoe · maps
PriceFree
Getting thereAbout 20 minutes by car, or train to Ivanhoe (Hurstbridge line) then a short walk.
Untutored drop-in session with a model — turn up, draw, no critique circle. All materials supplied; bring your own easel if you have one. Runs weekly to the end of the year.
WhenWed 26 Aug (weekly) · Doors 6.45pm, starts 7pm sharp — runs to 9pm
Sally Ann McIntyre took 19th-century notations of the extinct huia's song, played them on piano, transferred them to phonograph and played them back where huia were last seen. Alongside three more shows.
WhenOpen now, to 24 Oct · Wed–Fri 11am–4pm · Sat 10am–4pm
WhereBundoora Homestead Art Centre, 7 Prospect Hill Dr, Bundoora · maps
PriceFree
Getting thereTram 86 to stop 63 then 550m on foot — about 40 minutes door to door.
Stellar Nights — Melbourne Observatory Guided Tour
Small groups rotate through the 1861 observatory's two heritage telescopes plus hands-on time with an ASV-supplied scope. Capped at 30 guests, runs weekly through spring.
WhenMondays, next Mon 24 Aug · 7.30pm, 2h15m
WhereMelbourne Observatory — meet at Observatory Plaza, RBG Visitor Centre, Birdwood Ave, South Yarra · maps
Price$45 adult, $25 child — bookings essential
Getting thereAbout 40 minutes: tram 86 to the CBD, then tram 8 to the Gardens, or drive.
Standing horror-film-society screening at a video-store-and-bar — Mary Harron's American Psycho (2000) with a guest intro by Nik McGrath. Exactly the repertory, small-cinema programming this page looks for.
WhenWed 26 Aug · 7.30pm
WhereChampagne Video, 318 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North · maps
PriceMembership plus door price — exact figure not confirmed
Getting thereTram 11 up St Georges Rd, or about 15 minutes by bike from Northcote.
Check first. Exact ticket/membership price wasn't confirmed this run — check the venue before relying on it.
Early Impressions: Painters of the Heidelberg School
National Gallery of Australia paintings by Streeton, Southern, Buvelot, Conder and Roberts, on long-term loan and hand-picked for scenes of Heidelberg and its surrounds — the Heidelberg School brought back to Heidelberg.
Haunted Worlds: Mario Bava, the Diabolical Magician of Cinecittà
Repertory season on the Italian horror/giallo pioneer, marking the film society's return from its winter break — exactly the small-cinema, retrospective programming rather than a multiplex release.
Guided bus field trip visiting five sites along Merri Creek, Moonee Ponds Creek and the Maribyrnong River, led by Monash and Melbourne Uni academics on urban waterway health, flooding, pollution and climate resilience.
Backyard produce, seedling and preserve swap at the Reynard Street Community Garden, which runs a working bee at the same time. Distinct from the North Coburg Food Swap (3rd Saturday, Parker Reserve).
WhenSat 12 Sep · 10.30am – 12.30pm
WhereReynard Street Community Garden, 104A Reynard St, Coburg · maps
PriceFree
Getting there15–20 minutes by bike or car from Northcote.
Monthly council-run citizen-science session checking tree hollows for resident Krefft's gliders using cameras, with participants helping spot and record sightings from the path.
WhenWed 26 Aug (monthly) · 2pm – 3pm
WhereWillsmere Park Pavilion, near Willow Grove & Wattle Rd, Kew East · maps
PriceFree
Getting thereAbout 25 minutes by car from Northcote.
Exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists' work from Swinburne University's 2026 NAIDOC Art Competition, presented by the Moondani Toombadool Centre.
WhenOpen now, to Sat 3 Oct · Gallery hours
WhereTown Hall Gallery, 360 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn · maps
PriceFree
Getting thereAbout 25 minutes by car or PT from Northcote.
Darebin's own multiarts festival returns 5–13 Sep with eight signature Darebin-curated programs plus 19 FUSE Funded and open-access events across the municipality; this is one performance program logged this run. Check the full FUSE program closer to the date for anything else that clears the bar.
When9–19 Sep, opening 10 Sep · Check FUSE program for session times
WhereNorthcote Town Hall Arts Centre, 189 High St, Northcote · maps
PriceNot yet published
Getting thereWalk, or five minutes up High St.
Check first. Session times and price not yet published — check the FUSE program closer to the date.
Next act in the standing Kew Court House Live series after this week's Backyard Banjo Club show — the 80-seat heritage courtroom-turned-theatre worth returning to regularly.
Finals concert for the Opera Scholars Australia Lieder Award — small-venue classical vocal recital in the same intimate courtroom-turned-theatre as the venue's regular live-music series.
Chenturan Aran's pressure-cooker family comedy about the documented adoption fraud that took children out of Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 80s. Final performance today.
WhenClosing weekend: Fri 21, Sat 22, Sun 23 Aug · Fri 7.30pm · Sat 6.30pm · Sun 5pm (closing)
WhereNorthcote Town Hall Arts Centre, 189 High St, Northcote · maps
Price$10 – $38
Getting thereWalk, or five minutes up High St. Tram 86 to Northcote Town Hall.
Banjo, violin, accordion, sax and double bass in an 80-seat heritage courtroom-turned-theatre — a standing Thursday/Friday live-music series that's been under-surfaced for Kew despite being exactly the small-venue live music this page looks for.
WhenFri 21 Aug · Doors & bar 7pm, first set 7.30pm, interval 8.15pm, second set 8.30pm
Rachel Morley recreates her family's memories of Melbourne's outer west on Super 8 — car park donuts, drive-bys past the old house — as a love letter to suburbia. Closes today.
Collection staff bring out specimens that normally live in the stacks, with pop-up talks through the day. Marketed as a family day, but the draw is the curators and specimens — go late afternoon and adults on their own are unremarkable.
Victoria's premier title, decided over nine Saturday-night rounds — a ten-player round robin Premier Division and a Swiss-format Reserves Division at Melbourne's historic chess club.
Getting thereTram 86 to the city end of High St, then a short walk — about 25 minutes.
Check first. The published price is a player's competition entry fee (9 rounds), not a spectator ticket — whether you can walk in and watch for free wasn't confirmed this run. Check before turning up just to watch.
New sound, material and gesture work from Moorina Bonini, Chi Tran and Nithya Iyer, with Jacquie Meng's separate window installation alongside. Opens today.
WhenOpen now (opened Sat 22 Aug), to 24 Oct · Wed–Fri 11am–6pm · Sat 12–4pm
WhereWest Space, Level 1 Perry St Building, Collingwood Yards, Collingwood · maps
PriceFree
Getting thereTram 86 then a short walk, or 25 minutes by bike.
Check first. Exact street address at Collingwood Yards wasn't confidently geocoded this run.
Leyla Stevens turns from her usual moving-image work to sculpture, drawing and prints, built from material details of her family's temple in Kuta, south Bali.
WhenOpen now (opened Sat 22 Aug), to 17 Oct · Tue–Sat 11am–5pm
WhereGertrude Contemporary, 21-31 High St, Preston South · maps
PriceFree
Getting there10 minutes by car, or about 20 minutes by bike from Northcote.
Portrait show of the regular traders from the Gleadell Street Saturday Market, hung in the laneway behind the market with an official opening by the Mayor — small, local, exactly the under-surfaced Richmond material this page looks for.
5-hour hands-on black & white film development and darkroom printing class — no experience needed, bring 1-3 rolls of exposed film, take home your negatives and hand-printed enlargements. Exactly the small-group photography class format Mark's after, and a standing offering worth returning to.
WhenSat 22 Aug · 10am – 3pm
WhereBrunswick Darkroom, 91 Nicholson St, Brunswick East · maps
Price$250
Getting thereTram 19 up Sydney Rd then a short walk, or about 20 minutes by bike from Northcote.
Kirsten Garner Lyttle's After Spectacle, on nineteenth-century photography and colonial ways of seeing, and Yasuko Toda's Reassociate, tracing how pop culture disconnects violent histories from context. Last day.
WhenCloses Sun 23 Aug · Thu–Sun, check gallery hours
Bikes, mallets, a hockey-sized ball, on a hardcourt in Flagstaff Gardens — genuinely obscure and unpretentious. Semi-contact, informal, spectators just turn up. This week's Sunday session.
WhenSun 23 Aug (most Sundays and Tuesdays) · Not published
Check first. The club's own site still has no published timetable — session start time unconfirmed. Worth wandering past mid-to-late afternoon rather than planning precisely around it.
Playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton on his fiction debut Krank Fuss — an Animal Farm-style allegory told through a deformed-footed chicken on a Nazi-Germany-era farm.
Hilary Harper (ABC RN Life Matters) with Hannah Moloney and the museum's invertebrate curator Simon Hinkley, on what is actually happening underground.
The Power of Geospatial Science: Promise and Peril
National Science Week symposium: five talks on what precise location data enables and what it costs, with speakers from Google, RMIT, Monash and Vicmap.
WhenThu 20 Aug · 9am
WhereRoyal Society of Victoria Hall, 8 La Trobe St, Melbourne CBD · maps
Bong Joon-ho's 2003 procedural, screened as part of a weekly repertory strand at a small Collingwood cinema -- genuine arthouse programming rather than a new-release slate.
Ten of Marilyn Monroe's best performances, one per Saturday, marking her 100th birthday -- a curated classic-film season at the art-deco cinema on Mark's own end of High St.
WhenSat 29 Aug (weekly to 5 Sep) · Check listing
WherePalace Westgarth, 89 High St, Northcote · maps
PriceStandard session pricing
Getting thereWalk or a short tram 86 ride up High St.
Check first. Specific Saturday title and session time not published beyond the season overview -- check the Palace listing for this week's film.
One-day Italian festival inside the market -- Sicilian BBQ seafood, tiramisu, Italian-inspired cocktails and live sets from local Italian musicians and choirs. Marketed with face painting for kids, but the actual room is a produce market with live music; adults on their own aren't out of place.
WhenSun 23 Aug · 10am - 3pm
WherePreston Market, 2/30 The Centreway, Preston · maps
PriceFree entry
Getting thereBus 552 or a 10-minute drive up High St; easy cycling distance.
Five-band local/DIY lineup (Loose Tooth, Techno 666, Bizarrgo, Kosmetika, Banksy) in a Thornbury warehouse bandroom that pairs gigs with art exhibitions -- small-venue, unpretentious, and on Mark's own strip of High St.
Getting thereWalk or a short tram 86 ride up High St from Northcote.
Check first. Ticketing for this specific lineup runs through a Facebook event, which this run can't read -- confirm door price (listed as free entry) and set times via the venue directly.
Volunteer repairers fix small appliances, textiles, bikes and electronics for free. Confirmed via the group's pinned 2026 Calendar post: runs every two months on the 4th Sunday with no fixed venue -- this session is at Jika Jika Community Centre, Northcote. Skills available vary (electrical, mechanical, sewing/mending, gluing, test-and-tag; bicycle/jewellery/IT sometimes). Booking link posted about a week ahead on the organiser's Facebook Events section.
Beginner-friendly four-week series making cyanotypes -- camera-less, sun-exposed blue-toned prints -- with artist Deanna Hitti, using a hand-built lightbox, found objects and textiles. A genuine hands-on photography class, not a one-off, and you can drop into single sessions.
Getting thereAbout 15-20 minutes by car, or train to Collingwood then a short walk.
Check first. Collingwood Yards' own event page still shows this recurring market's last confirmed instance (5 Feb); the 19 Sep date comes from a secondary listing. Confirm before travelling.
Round 2 of the nine-round Victorian Chess Championship, rated on ACF & FIDE lists. Round 1 (22 Aug) has already been played; this continues the season most Saturday nights into late September.